THE MEND GUIDE: Comprehensive Guide for Planning Mass Evacuations in Natural Disasters

Millions of people have to evacuate their homes every year to avoid danger and seek safety out of harm’s way from potential or actual disasters. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that 32.4 million people were newly displaced by sudden-onset disasters in 2012 alone. Timely, well prepared and effectively managed evacuation processes are critical to the survival and protection of exposed and vulnerable people before, during and after the onset of disaster. 

The manner in which evacuations are carried out may significantly affect the ability of practitioners to manage assistance to populations in evacuation sites. Some national disaster management authorities in disaster-prone countries have extensive experience in mass evacuations. For example, countries such as the Philippines and China have well-established procedures to evacuate hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people from areas prone to natural disasters. Other countries find the process challenging or they have limited access to comprehensive guidance to manage the necessary planning process.

This Comprehensive Guide for Planning Mass Evacuations in Natural Disasters – the MEND Guide – came to life at the request of several countries and national disaster management authorities to address this gap and provide a quick reference document containing practical guidance. It also attempts to bring together emergency planning needs and humanitarian considerations which are complementary in so many ways. 

This pilot version of the MEND Guide is the result of a collective effort initiated by the Global Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster. A Steering Committee with representatives from different countries and international organizations was assembled and their active contributions were received on successive versions of the guidance. Appreciation for participation and contributions are offered to the representatives of Cuba, Cyprus, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Nepal, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, International Organization for Migration (IOM), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA), Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Professor Duncan Shaw of the Warwick Business School, Elizabeth Ferris of the Brookings Institution, the Global Protection Cluster and the European Commission Directorate

General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (DG ECHO).

Further thanks are given to IDMC for the insights shared and continued support throughout the drafting of the MEND Guide. IDMC is a leading source of information, data and analysis on internally displaced persons worldwide, and a key collaborator of the CCCM Cluster.

Special thanks are given to Vera Goldschmidt of IOM in acknowledgement of her work in facilitating the Steering Committee and leading the drafting of the Guide. A special mention should also be made of those who have also assisted in the drafting of the Guide – Julia Pacitto, Mallory Carlson, Debora Gonzalez, Anna Reichenberg of IOM, Andrew Cusack of UNHCR, and Michelle Yonetani of IDMC.

The Global CCCM Cluster would like to thank DG ECHO, which has generously funded this initiative.

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